Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

Greenhouse Gas Bubbling From Melting Permafrost Feeds Climate Warming

Date:

September 7, 2006

Source:

Florida State University

Summary:

A study co-authored by a Florida State University scientist in Tallahassee, Fla., and published in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Nature, has found that as the permafrost melts in North Siberia due to climate change, carbon sequestered and buried there since the Pleistocene era is bubbling up to the surface of Siberian thaw lakes and into the atmosphere as methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Share This

Methane bubbles trapped in lake ice during the first few days of ice formation on a Siberian thermokarst lake.

Credit: Image Courtesy of Jeff Chanton, FSU Oceanography Department

A study co-authored by a Florida State University scientist and published in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Nature has found that as the permafrost melts in North Siberia due to climate change, carbon sequestered and buried there since the Pleistocene era is bubbling up to the surface of Siberian thaw lakes and into the atmosphere as methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Related Articles

In turn, that bubbling methane held captive as carbon under the permafrost for more than 40,000 years is accelerating global warming by heating the Earth even more --- exacerbating the entire cycle. The ominous implications of the process grow as the permafrost decomposes further and the resulting lakes continue to expand, according to FSU oceanography Professor Jeff Chanton and study co-authors at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

"This is not good for the quality of human life on Earth," Chanton said.

The researchers devised a novel method of measuring ebullition (bubbling) to more accurately quantify the methane emissions from two Siberian thaw lakes and in so doing, revealed the world's northern wetlands as a much larger source of methane release into the atmosphere than previously believed. The magnitude of their findings has increased estimates of such emissions by 10 to 63 percent.

Understanding the contribution of North Siberia thaw lakes to global atmospheric methane is critical, explains the paper that appears in this week's Nature, because the concentration of that potent greenhouse is highest at that latitude, has risen sharply in recent decades and exhibits a significant seasonal jump at those high northern latitudes.

Chanton points to the thawing permafrost along the margins of the thaw lakes -- which comprise 90 percent of the lakes in the Russian permafrost zone -- as the primary source of methane released in the region. During the yearlong study, he performed the isotopic analysis and interpretation to determine the methane's age and origin and assisted with measurements of the methane bubbles' composition to shed light on the mode of gas transport.

"My fellow researchers and I estimate that an expansion of these thaw lakes between 1974 and 2000, a period of regional warming, increased methane emissions by 58 percent there," said Chanton. "Because the methane now emitted in our study region dates to the Pleistocene age, it's clear that the process, described by scientists as 'positive feedback to global warming,' has led to the release of old carbon stocks once stored in the permafrost."

In addition to Chanton, the John Widmer Winchester Professor of Oceanography at FSU, co-authors of "Methane bubbling from Siberian thaw lakes as a positive feedback to climate warming" include K. M. Walter (Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska-Fairbanks); S. A. Zimov (Northeast Science Station, Cherskii, Russia); and D. Verbyla (Forest Science department, University of Alaska-Fairbanks).

Featured Research

Mar. 31, 2015  As the five-year anniversary of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig approaches, a new report looks at how twenty species of wildlife are faring in the aftermath of the ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Scientists have discovered why the first buds of spring come increasingly earlier as the climate changes. As the climate changes the sweet spot for seeds comes earlier in the year, so first flowers ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  In the 1990s the discovery of the oldest human made and completely preserved wooden hunting weapons made the Paleolithic excavation site in Schoningen internationally renowned. Contained within the ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  The adverse health effects caused by fine particles have been known for some time. In addition, ultrafine particles appear to play a significant role in cardiac function -- even if an individual is ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015  Researchers have identified a new source of methane for gas hydrates -- ice-like substances found in sediment that trap methane within the crystal structure of frozen water -- in the Arctic Ocean. ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015  A new study reports that marine ecosystems can take thousands, rather than hundreds, of years to recover from climate-related upheavals. The study's authors analyzed thousands of invertebrate fossils ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015  By studying the morphology and physiology of plants with tiny conical "hairs" or microfibers on the surface of their leaves, such as tomatoes, balsam pears and the flowers Berkheya purpea and Lychnis ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015  The 2000-2003 drought in the American southwest triggered a widespread die-off of forests around the region. A team of scientists developed a new modeling tool to explain how and where trembling ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015  A new study has confirmed the existence of a positive feedback operating in climate change whereby warming itself may amplify a rise in greenhouse gases resulting in additional ... full story

Related Stories

Mar. 9, 2015  Global warming may ramp up the flow of methane from groundwater into Arctic lakes, allowing more of the potent greenhouse gas to bubble out into the atmosphere, according to a new ... full story

July 16, 2014  Arctic thermokarst lakes stabilize climate change by storing more greenhouse gases than they emit into the atmosphere, a new study shows. Found in the Arctic and cold mountain regions, thermokarst ... full story

Apr. 7, 2014  Researchers have found new evidence that permafrost thawing is releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere via plants, which could accelerate warming trends. Permafrost is soil ... full story

June 18, 2012  All of the methane escaping into the atmosphere causes more melting ice, oceanographers say, which causes sea levels to rise and could affect coastal real estate values -- sooner rather than ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.